ALL-METAL MODE: youve got to be kidding?

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

OHIO Peeps: It all depends upon what you are looking for. In cache hunting, "all" detected targets are dug up. A small tin can or metal box with $20 dollar gold pieces inside is just iron / junk as far as any detector is concerned. The discrimination factor is primarily useful for coin hunting.

Don Jose de La Mancha



" I exist to LIVE, not live to exist"

 

[Eu_citzen]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

Hey EU CITIZEN
By mental fatique, I meant that while digging all targets including iron especially nails and the like over a long period of time, you gradually loose concentration because of the physical demand and to some degree discouragement. This is why metal detectors have disrimination because it saves time and this allows you to have the ability to find more good targets.

I too can detect for 7 or 8 hours straight but eventually exhaustion do set in and it can affect concentration. If you're mentally drained, you're going to miss out on the deep targets. Anway, those are my thoughts anyway.

I understand. Yes if digging ALL targets this would be true. I don't disc out anything except the ground but still dig mostly aluminum trash. (The DFX disc is lovely)

Niel: Not all detectors have Mixed Mode.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

Eu-citizen, you say: "I have though wide open disc on the DFX (accept -95 to +95) with Tone ID on." Well if you have tone ID on, then you are not truly in all-metal mode. You may have elected to hear everything, but that is not true all-metal mode, since you have a way to make tone ID judgements.

Newfiehunter, you hit the nail on the head: There are those that would BRISTLE at the thought of any discrimination. They would reason: "Afterall, you might miss something masked by that nail" or "that piece of foil in that blighted inner-city junky park *might* be a diamond ring" or whatever. But you made a good point by saying that there comes a point of threshold tolerance, where ..... if you're spending all your time digging trash, d/t your resisting using any form of disc, that eventually, you'll loose interest. Ie.: why do this hobby if all you find is trash, and once in a long while, find a fluke? Seems to me that if there was a way to increase the goodie count (knocking out iron, or knocking our small surface foil in a junky park, etc...) that a person is best served by increasing his goodie count. Like, I can point you to parks where if you dug all foil thinking that "one *might* be a tiny gold ring" you would literally be there till the cows come home, and yes, you would eventually say "it's not worth it".

Rebel LT, I laughed when I read your description of the Explorer in ferrous with all tones accepted: "the thing sounded like a bunch of hogs, geese, and flute players in a battle" So true! But now I love that orchestra too! haha

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

Niel: Not all detectors have Mixed Mode.

That is obvious, but the person who started the thread does

 

[Eu_citzen]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

Eu-citizen, you say: "I have though wide open disc on the DFX (accept -95 to +95) with Tone ID on." Well if you have tone ID on, then you are not truly in all-metal mode. You may have elected to hear everything, but that is not true all-metal mode, since you have a way to make tone ID judgements.

I have never claimed to be in true all metal mode!
I know how true all metal mode is my old GTI 2500 had it!

Neil: I see, I thought that was a general statement meant for everyone..lol
Mixed mode is really good I like it to.

 

[flyinguy]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

with my 2 80's compasses, if i searched all metal mode, i would have a new garden in no time. they pick up every metal item. minerals, rusty soil, a meteorite,(YEAH!) black sand and ghosts. both have an auto reject for irons and work great. one has multi tone which i keep off. drives me nutser than i already am. if i'm in a quiet area i take off as much discrimination as i can tolerate. i dig iffies and all solids. some days, on new sites esp., i like to go full discr. and pick out the best. good luck!

 

[luvsdux]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

I posted the third reply to this thread and I still stand by what I wrote. HOWEVER, I didn't say I always or usually hunt in all metal mode, only that it's the most sure way to get the most good targets. In most areas the use of some discrimination is a great help in maintaining our sanity and if one wants to "cherry pick" an area by using high discrimination, it's all fine by me. I expect most of us adjust to the area we are hunting at the time trying to find the settings that will pull the good stuff with the least frustration. Fortunately for the coin hunter the settings that knock out most of the smaller iron don't hurt the coin response. It's just too bad that nickels, foil, gold, and pull tabs all fit in the narrow detecting notch that they do. Anyway, summers nearly on us - happy hunting and good finds to all.
Cheers,
Bill

 

[Ohio Jerry]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

I'm just curious as to where, besides the beach, you would be able to hunt in all-metal. Even at our old forts that are nothing but open field, the iron trash is so abundant your detector just chatters all the time in all-metal.

Hi Digger,i use mixed mode almost exclusively on my DFX but understand that I'm doing a lot of woods hunting,briars and scrub trees all over, and its hard to get your coil swinging in some of the thick stuff.In the non motion, mixed mode you can get a signal from the all metal channel by barely moving your coil,then give the target a sweep and let the discrimination channel kick in and tell you whether it's iron or non-ferrous.In trashy areas,mixed mode will rattle your brain

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

I'm just curious as to where, besides the beach, you would be able to hunt in all-metal. Even at our old forts that are nothing but open field, the iron trash is so abundant your detector just chatters all the time in all-metal.

Hi Digger,i use mixed mode almost exclusively on my DFX but understand that I'm doing a lot of woods hunting,briars and scrub trees all over, and its hard to get your coil swinging in some of the thick stuff.In the non motion, mixed mode you can get a signal from the all metal channel by barely moving your coil,then give the target a sweep and let the discrimination channel kick in and tell you whether it's iron or non-ferrous.In trashy areas,mixed mode will rattle your brain

Well said, Jerry!

 

[Silver Fox]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

I see posters suggesting often to use "all-metal mode" for the best depth. Every time I see this I cringe. I can't imagine, other than a beach, any place where all-metal is practical for me. I've never hunted a beach, but when I hunt our swimming hole I do use ALMOST all-metal. Do people really have such clean trash less sites that they can actually hunt in all-metal?

I'm not ragging on those who suggest all-metal mode, I'm just curious as to where, besides the beach, you would be able to hunt in all-metal. Even at our old forts that are nothing but open field, the iron trash is so abundant your detector just chatters all the time in all-metal.

ALL METALS is just a choice; you can use it or not depending on the conditions you are searching in whether water or land. And you ARE ragging 'cause you are criticizing others' hunting choice. Choices is what life is all about. Many times people like Jay Leno will make fun of those, mostly politicians, who express a dislike for this or that on TV and Jay says, simply, CHANGE THE STATION! Well, there are those who feel that using ALL METAL is their choice and if they want to they can CHANGE THE MODE!

Silver Fox

 

[flyinguy]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

hunt the way you want. every magic stick is different. have fun, be neat and show us your good stuff!

 

[1491]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

My experience with all-metal mode is that you will be 'directed' to more targets, beach or land. I've noticed that in all-metal mode, the coil is much 'hotter', that is, it acts more like a divining rod than a detector. While swinging, you will hear an increase in the threshold tone if you have swung towards (but not over) a target. In discrim mode, I have to be much closer to a target to get this effect. I've experienced this with my Excal and my F75. If it is a trashy area, you can always switch to discrimination mode after locating a target and decide not to dig. A lot of guys like to use all-metal to find the iron debris fields at old sites, so that they can determine if they are in the right neighborhood for the other goodies. Plus, there are increased depth benefits to using all-metal. Nice thing about the F75 is that the target ID readout is still there in all-metal mode, so you have the best of both worlds.

 

[Mike Silver -gold]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

When I first started to detect 27 years ago the detectors did not have target ID. I would find at least 1 gold ring [in the ground] a week. I can't remember the last gold ring I found with my DFX. Oh thats right I never have. I find lots of them in water but none in the ground. The guys that do find them dig a lot of junk. If you want gold rings or gold coins you have to dig most all targets. It is a lot of work. Mike.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: ALL-METAL MODE: you've got to be kidding?

Getting back to your original question, depending on the ground conditions, yes! You can hunt in all metal. I use Mixed mode and a very slow sweep speed, which is essentially all metal and discriminate (ID) at the same time. Many of the sites I detect (including the site I found the three large coppers, the half cent and dozens of small buttons) are free of trash.

With the DFX you can also compromise and accept or reject various targets. The less rejection, the deeper you can detect in discriminate mode.


Here are my custom settings for the DFX. I use these settings when looking for old copper and silver. I have done very well with these settings since I started using them in April, finding 2 large cents, 1 half cent, 2 colonials, and numerous silver coins and buttons.

Customized DFX Relic Program for maximum depth:
Mixed Mode: ON
AC Sensitivity: 73 (adjust Preamp as high as you can go first, then adjust AC Sensitivity as high as possible while maintaining stabilitity)
DC Sensitivity: 45
Ratchet Pinpoint: OFF
Tone ID: ON (personal preference, but experts seem to agree that this is more accurate than VDI or Signagraph)
VCO: ON (A must!)
Modulation: ON (personal preference)
Trac View: ON (Allows you to see how often ground balance is being adjusted)
Auto Trac Offset: +1 (This will make the DFX more sensitive to small items such as gold and small buttons)
Block Edit: REJ: -95 to -31; ACCEPT -30 to +94; Reject +95 ( Don't worry. you will still hear all metal targets with the hum by monitoring the DC [ALL METAL] mode)
Recovery Speed: 10 ( you must sweep very slowly or targets will be missed, however this will ID on DEEP targets. See SWEEP SPEED)
Bottlecap Reject: 4 (raise if bottle caps are a problem in your area, but you may lose deep targets that may sound like trash)
Hot Rock Reject: 5 (Raise if Hot Rocks are a problem in your area)
Sweep Speed: 1 (This will give you maximum depth and allow you to monitor both the ALL METAL and DISCRIMINATE channel at the same time. This is one of the most important adjustments for deep targets. Make sure you slow down your sweep!!!)
Ground Filtering: 3 (raise this if you are in mineralized ground)
VDI Sensitivity: 85 (raise as high as you can while mainaining stability. raising it past 86 will add a third digit)
DC Phase: ON!!! (DC Phase allows you to see the phase shift of targets in ALL METAL mode. You can sometimes get a VDI number [non normalized] on targets that are out of the range of the ID mode!)
PreAmp: 4 (CRANK IT UP AS HIGH AS YOU CAN WHILE MAINTAINING STABILITY!)
2 Frequency (BEST DATA): ON (This is really personal preference. Many people say they can crank it up even more in single frequency, 15k for gold, 3K for copper and silver, but I like to find both!)


With these settings, you will get maximum depth while monitoring both ALL METAL and DISCRIMINATE (ID) mode at the same time.

I hope this helps!